"Spider-Man is bittersweet for me because I auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson. I was told at the time by [producer] Laura Ziskin that I was too old."

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Paola Kudacki

Anette Benning

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Francois Duhamel

Untitled Warren Beatty Project 2015

"I had not been directed by Warren before, and I found the experience entirely enjoyable.
Like many of the good ones, he's utterly delighted by what everyone does."

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Suzanne Tenner/Focus Features/courtesy of the Everett Collection

The Kids Are All Right 2010

"I think the film resonated because people saw their own
relationship, even if they're straight: the struggles with kids, the mistakes we make, the way we love them."

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Sony Pictures Classics/courtesy of the Everett Collection

Being Julia 2004

"When I was sent the
screenplay, I remember thinking, Are you kidding me? Are you paying me to do this? It was a real gift, very demanding and very fantastic."

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courtesy of the Everett Collection

American Beauty 1999

"Some people think she is a villain, and others find great
sympathy for her. I didn't really think about that when I was doing it. I was just in the moment."

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courtesy of the Everett Collection

Bugsy 1991

"It's like those old movies
where the characters are so well- spoken. I can't put things that way [in real life], but it's fun to listen to other people do it."

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Miramax/courtesy of the Everett Collection

The Grifters 1990

"I'm actually a very modest
person, but the whole taking-the-clothes-off thing was very liberating. It was comedic, actually—I understood how it served the story."

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Paola Kudacki

Tina Fey

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K.C. Bailey/Universal Pictures

The Nest 2015

"Amy and I do a movie every seven years. Aside from the actual work, the greatest joy for us is that it becomes an excuse to spend this much time together."

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courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

This Is Where I Leave You 2014

"It was nice to play a woman who wasn't defined by work. And I've never looked more German in the face than in my attempt to be a beautiful Jewish woman."

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Jay Maidment/Walt Disney Pictures/courtesy of the Everett Collection

Muppets Most Wanted 2014

"I get to sing in this. You ever watch Oliver, when the little boy sings and you can hear the hiss in the microphone? That's the power that I bring vocally."

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Myles Aronowitz/20th Century Fox Film Corp. All Rights Reserved/courtesy of the Everett Collection

Date Night 2010

"I love Steve Carell. One of the things I liked most is that I feel like that is a plausible married couple, both in age and appearance, which is nice to see."

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Ali Goldstein/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

30 Rock 2006–2013

"In this picture, Alec must have already been with [his wife] Hilaria because he was really skinny—right when I had a baby and got fat, the son of a bitch. He's a really, really good actor, so technical and precise."

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Girls: courtesy of Moviestore Collection Ltd.

Mean Girls 2004

"I am proud of it, but I'll tell you this: I did not know anything about how to act in this movie. Lindsay was so beautiful, and watching dailies we would always be taken: 'My God, she's such a movie star, she jumps off the screen!' "

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Paola Kudacki

Jennifer Garner

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Hopper Stone, SMPSP/Bleecker Street

Danny Collins 2015

"Pacino is so loose in the middle of a take, so comfortable in his body. And so facile—staying honest no matter what is happening. It's a magical movie."

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Dale Robinette

Men, Women & Children 2014

"It felt like a grown-up version of the Juno character. Somebody who just wants to do right
by her kid but has gotten herself in a tangle of trying to control things."

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Ann Marie Fox/Focus Features/courtesy of the Everett Collection

Dallas Buyers Club 2013

"How low-budget was it? Pretty down-and-dirty. Our clothes came from Goodwill, there was no real craft service, and I never sat in a makeup chair except to cover a zit."

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Fox Searchlight/courtesy of the Everett Collection

Juno 2007

I really wanted that one. There was no director attached when I signed on. I just thought it was the most beautiful, special script I had ever read."

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Columbia Pictures/courtesy of the Everett Collection

13 Going on 30 2004

"I think I'll have to show it to my kids. But I'm holding off for somebody being home sick with the stomach flu. Or Christmas. One or the other!"

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Photos 12/Alamy

Alias 2001–2006

"I'm not someone who can just snap and look good in a bikini. I had to come out of a pool for the Super Bowl episode. As soon as they shot that, I thought, Let me go to In-N-Out."

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Paola Kudacki

Jessica Lang

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Claire Folger/Paramount Pictures

The Gambler 2014

"The first thing that attracted me to this project was the powerful script—the dialogue felt more like a theater piece than a movie."

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